Reverberation control of gain



1952 J. L. HATHAWAY REVERBERATION CONTROL OF} GAIN Filed June 29, 1944 lutt. o

3) WW JA RRETTLEW/S /'/ATHA wAx Patented Jan. 29, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE REVERBERATION CONTROL OF GAIN Jarrett Lewis Hathaway, Cambridge, Mass, assignor to the United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy Application June 29, 1944, Serial No. 542,796

4 Claims. 17.'7386) l 2 This invention relates to apparatus in which ceiving apparatus as a function of both time and the direction and range of atarget is determined the instant level of the reverberation. by means of the echo technique. In one form .Still another and more specific object is to of such apparatus a pulse of energy having a diprovide for initially reducing the gain of the rerectional characteristic is emitted from a pro- 5 ceiver element of echo ranging apparatus to a jector, which is movable to any position around predetermined level and controlling its recovery the horizon. If a target is in the path of any in accordance with both time and the instant insuch emitted pulse, an echo thereof will be retensity of the reverberation so that when returned to the projector. The bearing of the tarverberation is light, the recovery time of the reget is therefore the same as the bearing of the g.) ceiver to full gain characteristic is comparatively projector at which the echo pulse was returned short but when reverberation is heavy, such reand the range may be computed from the time covery time is lengthened considerably. required by the pulse to travel to and return from Yet another specific object of the invention is the target. to reduce the effect of reverberation in the receiver More particularly, the invention relates to, and is of echo ranging apparatus by initially .applying has for a general object, the provision of a novel a negative biasing potential on a control grid of arrangement for controlling the gain of the reone or more amplifier stages in the receiver when ceiver portion of apparatus of the class dean energy pulse is transmitted, then discharging scribed which is used for receiving the echo of this potential through a circuit which includes the transmitted pulse. so a fixed impedance and a first diode of compara- The invention is of especial utility in undertively much lower impedance, when conductive, water sound echo ranging and is described in connected in parallel therewith; the conductivity this connection in the following specification. of the first diode being controlled through a sec However, it should be expressly understood that end diode which isconnected to the first diode it is equally applicable in conjunction with other 2. and also to the receiver output so that when reforms of echo ranging apparatus. verberation reaches 'a predetermined threshold In the application of underwater sound echo value in the receiver output, its effect upon the ranging apparatus, one of the difiic-ulties ensecond diode is such as to make the first diode countered results from the fact that immediately non-conductive. following the transmission or projection of a ese d Othtr j s of the tio Will sound pulse or ping, the receiver element of the become more apparent from the following deapparatus is connected to the projector and rescription and the accompanying drawings in verberation of the pulse is received. If the pulse which:

is long enough andof sufficient strength to carry Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view of a preferred to and from the target with distinguishable in embodiment of the invention as applied to undertensity, the reverberation is, at times, very severe. water echo ranging apparatus;

Since an echo may be relatively quite weak, the Fig. 2 is a view of the oscilloscope screen showreceiver must have enough gain to amplify it to ing the nature of the reverberation on the screen readily recognizable levels. The high gain rewithout receiver gain control; and

quired tremendously amplifies the reverberation, i Fig. 3 shows plots of typical variations of gain producing a blast of sound from the loud speaker with time in accordance with this invention as which is not only very discomforting to the opafieclied y e berat nerator but may at times so lower his aural acuity For illustrating the invention, I have shown in that he will miss a true target echo. If a visual Fig. 1 a highly simplified diagram of one form receiver such as a cathode ray oscilloscope is utiof an underwater sound echo ranging system lized in lieu of, or in conjunction with a loud with which the invention may be used. This sysspeaker, the high level of the reverberation ;protem includes'a p j transducer W p duces a high degree of deflection of the cathode ed to be p a beneath the Surface o t e Wa ray beam as it sweeps across the oscilloscope with its active face in a vertical position. The screen with the result that it may be deflected m nts f e p j or "I m y be i r h beyond the useful face of the indicator tube, thus p ctr r mae t tr fi typ d ar making invisible any additional deflection due to internally Connected n tege'theran echo pulse. A relay H, the winding of which is energized One specific object of the invention is theretermitt t -y r m a source l2 throu t mer iore to provide a novel arrangement for controlcontactor 13, functions when energized to moling the gain of an underwater sound receiving 'mentarily connect the output of supersonic freapparatus in order to reduce the undesirable efquency, from transmitter oscillator M through fect of the initial blast of reverberation. its contact Ha to the elements of projector In. Another specific obi-cot is to provide a novel The electrical energy imparted to the projector arrangement for controlling the gain of the re-- elements, which is a pulse of comparatively short short.

the underwater field, contacts Ha switch immediately to connect the elements of the projector into the receiver portion of the system. The reverberation of the transmitted pulse and later the true echo of the pulse from a remote target such as a submarine, which are picked up by projector I are converted into electrical signals or pulses which feed over conductor l through an amplifier stage IB, if desired, and

then into a mixer stage I? where they are beat 'with the output of oscillator I8, if desired, to

produce a selected difference frequency output. The output from mixer I! then feeds over conductor l9 into the control grid of amplifier 2|. The output from amplifier 2| is then, passed through mixer 22 where they are beat with oscillator to produce a selected audio difierence frequency note, thence through amplifier 23 and then via conductor 23A to a loud speaker 24 and/ or to the horizontal deflecting plates 25a of a cathode ray oscilloscope 25 via conductor 25.

The vertical deflecting plates 25b of the oscilloscope 25 are connected to a sweep circuit 21 of conventional construction, the arrangement being such that each time relay H is energized, a

desirable blast of sound from speaker 24 which might make it difficult to delineate the subsequently following target pulse echo. On the screen of oscilloscope 25, it might produce a defiection pattern similar to that shown in Fig. 2,

and from which, it would obviously be difiicult to distinguish a true target echo deflection such as jog 3B, the reverberation being indicated at In accordance with this invention, means are provided for reducing the gain of the receiver immediately following termination of a transmitted pulse to a predetermined level from which recovery is made dependent both upon time and the instant level of the reverberation. In other words, if the reverberation is light, the recovery time of the receiver to full gain characteristic is quite But with more severe reverberation, the recovery time is lengthened. Under both conditions, the ultimate result is the same, which result is a suppression of the reverberation for the minimum required time so that better reception of a true target echo pulse may be obtained.

The apparatus for accomplishing this desirable result is enclosed within the broken line block 3|. It includes a relay 32 which is energized over conductors 28, 26 at the same time that relay H is energized.

The receiver output is fed over conductor 34, through capacitor 35 to the cathode 36A of diode 36. Another diode 31 has its cathode 31a cond nected via conductor 38 to the fixed contact member of relay contacts 32a, and via conductor 39 and resistor 39A to the control, or input grid of amplifier 2|. The movable contact member of relay contacts 32a is connected to a source 4|] 01 negative potential.

The anodes 36b and 31b of diodes 36 and 31, respectively, are tied together through conductor 4|, and a filter capacitor 42 and resistor 43 are connected in parallel therewith to ground. A resistor 44 is connected between cathode 35a and ground, and similarly connected to cathode 31a are the parallel arranged capacitor 45 and resistor 46.

Operation In operation, each time that relay H is energized and its contacts I |a close, the output from oscillator I4 is connected to projector H] for a relatively short period whereby a pulse of com pressional wave energy is projected or beamed into the water medium. Relay 32 is likewise energized for this same period and when its contacts 32a. are closed, a negative potential is applied through them from source 40 to rapidly charge capacitor 45. The negative potential to which capacitor 45 is charged is also applied via conductor 39 and resistor 39A to the grid of amplifier tube 2| to reduce the gain of this tube and thereby reduce the gain of the receiver portion of the system to a preselected low value.

When transmission of the pulse has terminated by switching of relay contacts I la, relay contacts 3211 also open. If diode 31 were considered not to be in the circuit, capacitor 45 would then discharge wholly through resistor 46 in a period of about 2.5 secs, for example. With diode 31 in the circuit, and in a conductive condition, it will be seen that the discharge path for capacitor 45 includes resistor 46 shunted by diode 31 in series with resistor 43. Since diode 31 exhibits a resistance of only a few hundred ohms, it may be considered as a short circuit relative to resistor 46, the latter having a comparatively much higher resistance value. Under this condition, which is the condition when no reverberation is present, the discharge time for capacitor 45 becomes much less, such as about .15 sec., for example. Gain recovery of tube 2|, which occurs simultaneously with discharge of capacitor 45, is then rather rapid and its characteristic is shown by curve 41 in Fig. 3.

However, if reverberation is present, which is usually the condition, electrical pulses corresponding thereto are fed into the receiver, when relay contacts Ila are in the receiving position. The resultant potential is suitably amplified through the receiver and its output applied across diode 36. Consequently since the anodes 36b and 31b of diodes 36 and 31, respectively, are tied together by conductor 4|, the D. C. potential across diode 36 is applied to the anode 31b of diode 31.. If the value of this potential, which is made negative in polarity, at any time equals or exceeds the negative potential at cathode 31a of diode 31, hereinafter referred to as the threshold, there will be no flow of current through the latter diode; that is, the discharge path for capacitor 45 will be only by way of impedance 45. Thus the recovery time constant for amplifier 2| might be somewhere between the 2.5 sec. and .15 sec. periods previously referred to, depending upon the level of the reverberation.

Reverberation, as found in underwater echo ranging apparatus, follows no particular set pattern and its level may vary greatly with time. For

to illustrate how gain recovery of the receiver might vary with time for two other and different trains of reverberation.

Following curve as from the origin, which is the time point, i. e. time of energy pulse transmission, it will be seen that the recovery rate follows along with curve 47 up to point a which indicates that up to point a no appreciable reverberation cccured. However, at point a, it is seen that rapid recovery stops until point I) is reached. This cessation of recovery is of course caused by reverberation occurring between points a and b and which has sufiicient level to develop at anode 31b of diode 31 in Fig. 1 a negative potential exceeding that on the cathode 37a of this diode. Thus from points a to b, discharge of capacitor 45 is only through resistor 46.

At point b, where the reverberation drops in level below the threshold value, diode 37 again becomes conductive and curve 48 again follows the slope of curve 41 until point e is reached. Point 0 is intended to indicate another increase in reverberation level above the threshold value which persists over to point d, preventing normal gain recovery. From point d, it is seen that reverberation drops below the threshold value and the normal recovery rate is thereafter followed.

Curve 49 illustrates another condition in which the reverberation is at a much higher level and lasts appreciably longer than in curve 48. It will be seen that during most of this entire recovery cycle, the reverberation is sufficiently strong to influence the recovery rate excepting over the short period between points e and I.

In conclusion, it will be evident that this invention presents a novel, low cost, and highly satisfactory arrangement for controlling the gain of echo ranging receivers so as to reduce the effect of reverberation. The reverberation is suppressed by initially lowering the gain of the receiver but its recovery rate is made dependent not only upon time but also upon the level of the reverberation to the desirable end that the gain of the receiver is held down only for the minimum period required to satisfactorily suppress the reverberation.

It will also be evident that the foregoing description concerns only the preferred embodiment of the invention and that various changes and modifications therein may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus fully described this invention, I claim:

1. In an echo rangin system including a receiver having at least one amplifier stage including an electron discharge device with a control element and whose gain is dependent on the amplitude of a direct current bias voltage fed to the control element, means for controlling the gain of said receiver comprising, means including a capacitor initially charged to a given voltage for biasing said control element of said amplifier stage to initially reduce the gain thereof, a discharge path ior said biasing means including a diode, means for derivin a potential proportional to the level of the reverberation entering said receiver, and means applying the said potential to said diode to render said diode completely non-conductive at the instant when said potential reaches a predetermined magnitude thereby to control the discharge time 01 said bias ing means.

2. In an echo ranging system including a receiver having at least one amplifier stage includ ing an electron discharge device with a control element and whose gain is dependent on the amplitude of a direct current bias voltage fed to the control element, means for controlling the gain of said receiver comprising, means including a capacitor initially charged to a given voltage for biasing said control element of said amplifier stage to reduce the gain thereof, a discharge path for said biasing means including a first diode, a second diode connected to the output of said receiver, and connections between said diodes whereby the discharge path through said first diode is instantaneously rendered either completely conductive or completely non-conductive by the receiver output acting through said second diode.

3. In a sound echo-ranging device wherein a pulse of energy is propagated into a liquid medium and reverberation echoes of gradually decreasing magnitude tend to obliterate the desired echoes, said echo-ranging device including a variable gain amplifier whose gain is inversely related to the amplitude of a control voltage fed thereto, the improvement comprising a control voltage source for said amplifier comprising; a first discharge path for providing a direct current voltage whose amplitude gradually decreases from a first voltage level to a second voltage level when disconnected from its charging voltage source, a source of charging voltage for said first discharge path, switch means for connecting said source of charging voltage to said discharge path during transmission of a pulse of energy to charge said discharge path to said first voltage level and for disconnecting said charging voltage source therefrom upon termination of the transmission of said pulse, a circuit including a first diode rectifier device coupled across said first discharge path to normally aid the discharge thereof, a second diode rectifier device, means coupling the received echoes to said first diode rectifier device through said second diode rectifier device to oppose the voltage coupled to said first diode rectifier device from said first discharge path and to render same non-conductive whereby the discharging of said discharge path is arrested when the amplitude of the signal exceeds a given amplitude level, and means for coupling the voltage generated by said first discharge path to said variable gain amplifier to control the gain thereof.

4. The combination of claim 3 characterized further by said first discharge path including a capacitor inparallel with a resistance.

J ARRETT LEWIS HATHAWAY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,009,459 Turner July 30, 1935 2,158,198 Prescott May 16, 1939 2,167,492 Sproule July 25, 1939 2,276,709 Wyckofi Mar. 17, 1942 2,312,934 Shook Mar. 2, 1943 2,316,354 Moritz Apr. 13, 1943 2,352,825 Fay July 4, 1944 

